Week 24

Happy National Freedom Day (Freedom from Slavery)
Also, Google is celebrating Fredrick Douglas today with a google doodle.

February 2 - 6th Grade Collaboration
February 4 - Cody Young - Birthday
February 6 - Peggy Badgley - Birthday

February 7 - Jessica Ratliff - Birthday
February 8 - Wendy Nepean - Birthday
February 10 - Mid-terms
February 10 - Faculty Meeting
February 12 - Collaboration Day

February 15 - President's Day - No School
February 18 - Board Meeting @ 7:00
February 19 - Melanie Schalk - Birthday

February 25 - Kelly Lawson - Birthday
February 25 - The Ned Show 8:30 & 9:30


So, there are a few rumors starting to float around about placements for next year. Let me say that I haven't finished moving people yet and some placements won't happen for a while depending on other placements. Make sense?

Here is what you need to know:

1. Keri Jameson will be returning to the middle school as one of our two STEM teachers. The other STEM teacher has not been officially decided yet.
2. Cindy Tanner will be moving to 5th grade math next year. The pod has yet to be determined.
3. Deanne Faraone will be moving to 6th grade math next year. Again, the pod has yet to be determined.
4. LeeRonda Smith will be moving to 4th grade SPED.
5. Our new Specials teachers are: Craig Hamilton (music), Anna Gowen (art), and Amanda Lance (pe).
6. Summer Ray will be moving to 5th grade SPED.

There are still a lot of transfer requests out there which could still impact some of these placements, but this is how it stands right now.

Last week, a few of us attended the Powerful Learning Conference. It was a great experience and I hope everyone learned a lot. One of the better sessions I attended was a keynote by Thomas Guskey from the University of Kentucky. He spoke about grading systems and said a few things that were pretty profound (at least to me). Did you know that grading is not essential to the learning process? Now, I'm not saying we don't need assessments to guide our instruction, but that goes against everything that we have ever been taught. He followed that up with the following:

Checking is diagnostic, but grading is evaluative.

Teacher is an advocate vs. teacher is a judge

He suggested we take a hard look at the purpose of grades. Then he went through several different types of grading systems - letter grades, percentages, standards based, etc. 

Here are the main points of his presentation:

1. Grading is not essential to the learning process.
2. The appropriateness of a grading method depends on the purpose.
3. Use informed professional judgment instead of mathematical algorithms.
4. Grading and reporting should always be done in reference to learning criteria; never "on the curve".
5. Report cards are just one way of communicating with parents.

A great leadership video from Andy Stanley.